Watching a Lynn Nottage play like “Sweat” is a little like peeling an onion. What you see at first is the whole onion, but then gradually the top layer comes off, then another and another until you are eventually left with just the raw core.
“Sweat,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2017, gets a commanding production locally by Palo Alto Players at the Lucie Stern Theater in Palo Alto. It runs through June 29.
Nottage’s play sometimes shifts in time between 2008 and 2016. It starts out with a parole officer (a steady Shawnj West, who also directs this show) talking with two young men who have been incarcerated for about eight years and are now out on parole. One, Jason (Will Livingston), is angry about missing out on a good chunk of his life and has reverted to getting facial and neck tattoos and hanging out with the wrong crowd.
The other, Chris (a convincing Adam C. Torrian) only wants to move forward with his life and tells the parole officer that he has taken a number of courses while in prison and eventually hopes to finish work on a bachelor’s degree.
Saturday’s opening night crowd – which saw the theater about 85 percent full – gave “Sweat” a standing ovation which was well deserved (at least for the majority of the actors).
The set then shifts to a typical bar – where the majority of the action takes place. As Stan, the bar’s owner, Scott Soloman is outstanding. He’s on stage for the majority of the play and serves to ground the action taking place in his bar.
Three long-time friends (a dynamic Kimberly Ridgeway as Cynthia, Amy Meyers as somewhat hot-headed Tracey, and Tannis Hanson as sweet Jessie) are already there. It’s clear that all have already had a number of drinks and Jessie, whose birthday they’re celebrating, has had way too many. She tries to get up, but only succeeds in getting part way before she plunks her head on the table and falls asleep again.
When she finally does succeed, she goes to Stan to order another drink, but he cuts her off. (Good thing, too, because shortly afterward she runs toward the ladies’ room to barf!)
That’s when things are good between the three women. But Cynthia applies for – and is selected – to be a ‘token woman’ on the management team. This causes a rift with Tracey, who now feels Cynthia is lording her new role over her two friends.
From left: Amy Meyers as Tracey, Tannis Hanson as Jessie and Kimberly Ridgeway as Cynthia.
Photo: Scott Lasky
Although there’s much to like about PAP’s production of “Sweat,” there are some problems as well. For one, there’s the gimmicky use of three mostly unintelligible television monitors located at each side and in the middle of the set. The problem is that all three TVs have different station personalities on screen, yet only one of them talks about the problems happening in Reading, Pennsylvania in 2008. It would have been better to have all three TVS showing the same station person talking.
There’s also a problem with occasionally using the far edges of the set. At least once a character was sitting stage left but only his feet could be seen by audience members sitting on the far left.
As the play progresses, the audience discovers that Chris is Cynthia’s son, and the initially hot-headed Jason is Tracey’s son.
It helps if the audience understands what NAFTA is (the North American Free Trade Agreement which promoted trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico from 1994 and 2020). What the factory workers learn is that most of their jobs are being phased out, and Hispanic workers are being brought in because they will work for lower pay.
One other character deserves mention here because he is pivotal to so much that happens in Act 2 when some of the action takes place in 2008 and some in 2016. That is Aaron Edejer as Oscar. He is Stan’s helper at the bar, whipping down tables, fixing things that get broken, ferrying glasses back to the bar and generally doing whatever Stan tells him to do, He tells Tracey Columbian/American, and when the factory workers are let go, he crosses their picket line to work for less money at the factory.
From left: Anthony Hayes as Brucie, Aaron Edejer as Oscar, Amy Meyers as Tracy, Scott Solomon as Stan, Tannis Hanson as Jessie and Kimberly Ridgeway as Cynthia.
Photo: Scott Lasky
“Sweat” has a swift and surprising ending, which won’t be divulged here. But it left audience members gasping.
This production is not recommended for children under 10 due to strong language, staged violence, racism and adult themes.
Palo Alto Players presents “Sweat” by Lynn Nottage
Now through June 29, 2025
Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., select Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.
Lucie Stern Theater
1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301
️ Tickets are $20 – $63 and can be purchased at the PAP Box Office (650) 329-0801 or online at www.paplayers.org
